I’ve been writing songs for children for 40 years. A great number of those songs have been about the Savior and His teachings.

 

One project that is particularly dear to my heart is “Stories of Jesus”. I had the  incredible opportunity to immerse myself in the scriptures and write 15 songs about the Savior’s life and miracles. It was one of the greatest privileges of my life. As the project began to take shape, I was concerned about how to deal with the end of His life—the suffering in Gethsemane and on Calvary. How could I explain to children something I could hardly grasp myself? 

 

When my husband and I went to Israel with a group of singers to perform in the Jerusalem Center, I had two experiences that impacted my writing of Gethsemane ten years later. The first was when our plane landed in Israel.  I wanted to be prepared for this experience but what I wasn’t prepared for was the incredible joy that washed over me as we touched down on Israeli soil. It was if the Savior was smiling, saying, “I did it! I won the victory and it is your gift. Take it”!

The second was on the last day of the tour when we visited the scenes of the Savior’s final hours on earth and were slowly walking up the hill to the garden of Gethsemane.  Those two images were planted in my heart.

 

I had been working for some months on the songs and still had no idea how to address the end of His life. One day, we had been up in the mountains, writing, and were coming back down the canyon, when the words came into my mind,  “Gethsemane, Jesus loves me.”  It hit me like a thunderbolt, so simple and profound. There was a song! I realized that children could and needed to understand that Jesus suffered for them because He loves them. It was His gift of love that began in Gethsemane, continued on Calvary and gloriously culminated at the empty tomb.

 

I went home and sat at the kitchen table, and the rest of the song came quickly. I remembered walking up the hill toward Gethsemane. I felt the joyous victory as the words poured into my mind, “The hardest thing that ever was done, the greatest pain that ever was known, the biggest battle that ever was won. This was done by Jesus! The fight was won by Jesus”!

 

Gethsemane was a gift and I will always be grateful for the privilege of receiving it.

-- Melanie